Cruz: Congress will keep promise to repeal Obamacare

DENTON, Texas -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said a repeal of the Affordable Care Act is in the works and dismissed an August deadline for Congress to consider a tax reform bill.

Author:
KHOU Staff

Published:
5:23 AM CDT April 12, 2017

Updated:
5:37 AM CDT April 12, 2017

DENTON, Texas -- U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said a repeal of the Affordable Care Act is in the works and dismissed an August deadline for Congress to consider a tax reform bill.

"We must repeal Obamacare," said Cruz, R-Texas. "I think that's a promise we can and will keep. We've got some more work to do."

The GOP’s first effort collapsed spectacularly on itself last month when Republicans couldn't muster enough support in their own party to get the president’s proposal passed.

When asked whether Congress would consider another healthcare bill before the 2018 mid-term election, Cruz said, "It certainly better. I'm working night and day for it to happen."

He listed tax reform as another priority. But President Trump scrapped his own plan which he campaigned on and is trying to create something new that can get a consensus of conservatives.

Though Trump predicted that Congress would have a tax plan by August, Cruz dismissed any “artificial deadline.”

"What's our common ground?" Cruz said. "What do we want to accomplish? In tax reform, the advice I've given to the president is two words: Be bold and simple."

Cruz visited the Peterbilt Motors Co. Manufacturing in Denton on Tuesday. He called it a listening tour but the freshman senator is running for re-election and already faces Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke from El Paso.

San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro is considering a run as well, and there could still be a Republican in the race.

Cruz currently has about $5 million in the bank for campaign purposes but it’s uncertain if that will be enough in what might be a competitive campaign.

"Look, we obviously have to continue raising money,” he said.

The senator just got President Trump to sign one of his bills, the NASA Reauthorization Act, which gives the space agency $19 billion for deep space exploration. Cruz said it will creates jobs in Texas.

“In 1960, the view was let the government do it all," Cruz said. "We’re no longer in that world. We’re now in a world where both Republicans and Democrats in Congress want to incentivize the private sector so that we can have many multiples of capital invested in space exploration."

A dozen protesters from Indivisible Denton protested the senator’s visit at the facility’s main gate on Airport Road.